Cancelled Before I Even Got Started

[midas]

I'm sorry to say I've been forced to cancel before I even got started with VOIPO. I post this so that hopefully the people in charge can change things in the future. If not, oh well, they'll survive without me.

I ordered my service a week ago. Supposedly the ATA was shipped last Thursday via USPS Priority Mail. As of today it still haven't arrived. Online support claims that it can take 7 to 10 days for delivery even though USPS claims 2-3 days for Priority mail service.

Customer service strike 1 - Rep should have offered to ship another one overnight at no extra charge and asked me to ship the first one back if it ever arrived.

I then inquired as to why billing and the 30 day guarantee started on the day I ordered and not the day I actually activate the service. I was basically told that's what the TOS says

Customer service strike 2 - Adjust the dates to coincide with when the service is actually started. I have no control over your shipping methods and should not be paying for time I can't use the service.

I then informed the rep that, if indeed those were the terms, that I thought they were ridiculous and I wanted to cancel right now.

Customer service strike 3 All I got was the URL to cancel. No effort to address any of my issues. No offer to have someone call me to try to work it out. He was happy to just end the chat so he could go on the next.


Sorry guys, I'm sure the service is probably fine. But I take bad customer service very personally. Hopefully you can fix your processes and others won't go through the same thing.

[VOIPoTim]

I'm happy to review this for you to make sure all was handled in accordance with policies.

As far as the items in this thread, I understand that you're frustrated. Here are some of the reasons that we handle things the way we do.

1) Our stated timeframe is 7-10 days. We do advertise 2-3 days anywhere, so we are not able to issue a credit based on that time window. If deliver time exceeds our advertised time window, we can look at credits.

VOIPo agents do not have the ability to offer to overnight devices in any situation. We use Priority Mail for all shipments. This allows us to be one of the only providers that offers FREE shipping and FREE activation. Competitors typically charge $10-$15 for shipping and some even $30 for activation.

2) Billing starting at the order date is common with all VoIP providers when the number is selected at the time of ordering . Many customers begin using the service immediately before their device is received (call forwarding, voicemail, etc) and VOIPo begins incurring costs immediately. I don't personally know of any provider that allows instant number activation/instant account access, but delays the billing. It's just the nature of VoIP.

3) We do have an escalation process for special situations where we failed to do something or a policy was not followed. I'm happy to review the ticket numbers. My direct e-mail is td@voipo.com.

[midas]

Thanks for the response Tim, but to clarify a few things.

I did not state that you (VOIPO) claimed 2-3 days service. It is the USPS that claims 2-3 day service for Priority Mail. When we are now going on 7 days from the time it shipped, something is wrong.

Second, I did not claim that your policies weren't followed. What I complain about is the policies themselves. As the customer, I don't care how the policies make sense to you. I am only concerned with how they impact me. When a company has policies in place that I find unfriendly to me, the customer, I tend to not want to do business with them.

This is why I posted this. I'm not trying to get anything. My decision is made. I'm not trying to poison your user base, most of them seem pretty happy. I only post so that you might try to understand how your policies impact the customer and explain the reason you lost one before they even had a chance to get started.

I worked retail for many years. I always preferred to hear the reasons why a customer was unhappy. It wasn't always possible for me to placate them. But at least I knew what I was doing wrong in their eyes. That's much better than just having a customer go away with no feedback. That's all this is, feedback.

For me, maybe I'm expecting more customer service than your price point allows. That's fine. I'm willing, and will in fact, be spending more money. But I was signing up here for a quality experience, not necessarily the cheapest experience.

[Russell]

My latest experience with Priority Mail: I ordered a Roku box this past Thursday. The company shipped it Friday (from San Jose). I'm in NC. It arrived Monday before lunch. Not sure whether it would have arrived faster if there was no weekend.

Makes me wonder if there is some kind of address issue with your ATA package.

[4plus3vette]

I had some pretty serious (IMO anyway) technology issues with VOIPo too when I started. It took a lot of effort on my side to get things correct. Many phone calls to 1st level support and then several e-mails back and forth with Tier 2 support before they finally made some changes on their internal servers to get the service working correctly.

I almost ran out of patience with this, but in the end, I am happy that I stuck with it. I really like the service at this point in time. I don't know how many companies that you will work with where you have direct access to the CEO like we have with VOIPo. Midas, I am sorry that you didn't have a little more patience, but I understand everyone's threshold is different.

VOIPoTIM - one thing that I found strange, in the vPanel/Promotions, when I first signed up for service I had the option to buy another year at the 1st year rate. That was on there for several weeks while I working working through the issues mentioned above. Then, right after the system started working well - AND when I would be more likely to consider the second year - the Promotion went away. Do you know why that happened? You can PM me if you need to.

Take care,

Jim

[holmes4]

See here (http://forums.voipo.com/showthread.php?t=2206)about the renewal promotion.

I know Midas from another forum and he tried Voipo because many of us there said we like it. I too had some technical issues at first, but got them ironed out and I am quite happy with the service. The USPS delivery issue is curious and unusual, but I can understand Voipo's policy regarding reships.

I do consider Voipo's technical support superior to other VoIP providers I have tried. No call centers in India for us!

[midas]

See here (http://forums.voipo.com/showthread.php?t=2206)about the renewal promotion.

I know Midas from another forum and he tried Voipo because many of us there said we like it. I too had some technical issues at first, but got them ironed out and I am quite happy with the service. The USPS delivery issue is curious and unusual, but I can understand Voipo's policy regarding reships.

I do consider Voipo's technical support superior to other VoIP providers I have tried. No call centers in India for us!

Thanks Holmes. Yea, you guys talked me into it. :p

Well another day has come and gone and the adapter still hasn't arrived. Tracking info still just shows processed through Houston on the 22nd, nothing more. I know USPS is awful with updating their tracking.

While I understand the reluctance to ship another, sometimes you need to address the customer. Take a credit card to insure that if the first unit arrives that it's sent back. I was a call center manager at U.S. Robotics and that's the way we handled this type of stuff.

And even if you don't want to ship another, at least don't start charging for the service while the customer can't use it. I don't care what your TOS says. It shouldn't say that in the first place. They know when the ATA is activated, start the clock then.

Oh well, I'm getting worked up again. No point. Hopefully I won't have the need to call India.

[caseydoug]

You might try calling UPS. It's possible the adapter got diverted.

[4plus3vette]

Steve,

Thank you for passing that link on.

What is weird is that I think I signed up in June and the promotion was there. The forum link said that it ended in March. Weird.

Jim

[midas]

You might try calling UPS. It's possible the adapter got diverted.

Actually, it's USPS, not UPS. And only the shipper can initiate a trace.

[burris]

Actually, it's USPS, not UPS. And only the shipper can initiate a trace.

I have the same problem with a different shipper while waiting for some computer parts. USPS

Their delivery confirmation shows as having delivered the package on July 26 at 10:36am...but nothing has arrived yet. The post office said their scan shows as delivered, but I must call the sender to track it, even though I have a tracking number.

[MisterEd]

I've been connected with 4 different VOIP providers either as an employee (Vonage and Net2Phone) or as a customer (Vonage, VOIPo and Sunrocket). I can tell you EVERY ONE of them started billing upon shipping of the ATA. It does seem strange but (as Tim likes to say) that's the nature of VOIP.

I have little doubt that VOIPO would have issued some credits seeing your ATA is so "lost." USPS "Priority Mail" makes no delivery guarantees. Their 2-3 days is FAR from what always happens. I just had a Priority Mail package shipped from NYC to me in NJ and it took 5 days to go 22 miles. I had a package from LA to NJ and it took 3 days to go 3000 miles. I RARELY gets Priority Mail in 2-3 days. If I had $1 for every PM package that took MORE THAN 2-3 days I'd be rich. Sometimes shit happens. Unfortunately you got shat upon by the USPS.

Should VOIPo have spent $30 or $40 to send you a 2nd ATA overnight UPS, I don't think so.

I understand your frustration (and I have had my share of it with VOIPo) but if you stick it out the inconvenience should be overshadowed by the service and features and the inconvenience will be long forgotten.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.

Ed

[VOIPoTim]

I just looked this up and we're now showing that it was delivered on Friday (30th). USPS is showing a several day gap between the Houston sort facility and Chicago which accounts for the delay.

We've shipped many many thousands of devices with USPS this year and 7-10 days is the typical timeframe for Priority Mail even though they state 2-3 days which is why we state 7-10 days to give everyone realistic expectations.

I understand that you were frustrated and have already cancelled service. If you do decide that you want to try the service though since you've received the device, contact me at tim @ voipo.com and I can reactivate and we can discuss. We'd love to have you try the service.

If you decide to keep the account cancelled, just write Return to Sender on the box and drop it in the mail. If you have already opened it, contact us for a return label.

Let us know how you want to move forward. Again, you can contact me at tim @ voipo.com to discuss.

[midas]

Yes, it was finally delivered yesterday. I did not open the box, but it is beat up pretty good. I just put it in another box and I will take it to UPS on Tuesday, my next day off and pay for return shipping myself. This really isn't about the money.

Tim, I appreciate your attempt to address this personally and I'm sure your customers appreciate it too. But nobody, including you, seems to understand why I'm upset. That's OK, as I said, my purpose of posting here was not to badger anyone. It's not my job, nor my place to tell you how to run your company.

[stevech]

Says he ordered service on 7/21; ATA shipped 7/22 US Postal.
Says he received it 7/30. Seems normal for USPS.
Says he is dissatisfied that another ATA wasn't sent by overnight express so he could get an ATA sooner.

Seems unreasonable to me.

[IBhere]

I myself ordered three accounts so I needed three adapters. Two came in quickly but had a problem with the third and there was a little contradiction in what I ordered.

All-in-all, VOIPo straightened it out quickly and I got to say, after dealing with Vonage for about four years, it's nice to speak to someone I can understand over the phone. I myself like dealing with companies that are stationed here and employ people in the USA.

For me personally, the savings is worth every bit of the lose ends that might need to be tied together. Is VOIPo perfect, no. Have they disappointed me, absolutely. I've run into a bunch of things where as I wish I was told a particular bit of info before I moved accounts around in VOIPo.

I did mention that they need to be more documented and as I can see, they are making the effort. VOIPo is a growing company and I have seen efforts by them to move forward for the benefit of all. I have not seen them excuse there way out of anything like Vonage and other companies.

After being in business for over 30 years I can tell you that no company is perfect. But I can tell you that from my personal experience, and I have no ties with VOIPo except for being a customer, I believe they are trying to make a good thing better. I myself am willing to stick with them through their growing period partly because they are saving me hundreds of dollars a year and giving us all an opportunity to grow with them through their reseller programs.